The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Spray Guns

I see the Pros using the gravity feed spray guns on most of the car shows on TV. I'm wondering if they are that much better than the old Binks guns with the can on the bottom. I know they are really expensive.

Tip: If you go to www.bondo.com and ask them for a how to use it video, they will mail you one free of charge. It is pretty informative.

http://www.angelfire.com/mech/64_chevy/

It's not so much the gravity feed as using a HVLP gun. Paint is so expensive, an HVLP gun pays for itself in the first use in reduced material loss. My Devilbiss Finishline II HVLP gun works with a conventional compressor and was under $200. Paid for itself on the first gallon of primer.
http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=1D

With gravity fed guns, you also save paint by using every last drop of paint in the cup. A siphon gun you also dump out about the last 1/4" of paint in the bottom of the cup that won't get sucked up the tube.

I have been getting pretty good results with the Taiwanese knockoff gravity feed HVLP gun that I have. It only cost me $85 at a local tool store sale. It also has the same threads as the crummier harbor freight guns so I got their big hopper for it, it holds a quart of paint. The only thing that is annoying is that in order to get enough air flow I have to run it off a straight hose, no quick couplers. It takes a fair amount of air flow to maintain enough pressure at the tip in an HVLP gun. I have a dedicated hose and centrifugal dryer I use for painting, and I use a dessicant disposable dryer between the hose and the gun to keep all water out.

It really does save a lot of paint, it took less than 8 ounces of reduced paint to do three coats of base on my bike tank. The gravity feed guns are also much easier to clean than the siphon guns, and the paint flows to the nozzle instantly, instead of having a brief period where the paint has to be sucked up into the gun.

You can get a very good gun for around $120. My Sharpe is a very good gun that does all I need. Being able to use a smaller compressor is nice too. The ease of cleaning is huge!

Once you've tried it, it's hard not to like a good gravity feed gun.

I second Chuck's response, you do not want to waste paint at the price it costs. HVLP is the way to go. I used a conventional gun for the first gallon had as much on the floor with overspray as I had on the cab. There is a learning curve with HVLP as with most specialty work. Zeke